As wireless network data rates improve using third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), and WiFi technologies, more and more bandwidth-intensive applications are being developed. Video over the Internet is becoming a significant part of Internet traffic with video portals provided by content providers, such as Hulu, YouTube, CNN, etc. Video content is also becoming more popular with applications provided via smart phones (e.g., the Motorola DROID, the iPhone, etc.). Much of the video content provided by such content providers and/or applications is high bit rate content that is not optimized for wireless networks. Furthermore, wireless networks may be utilized as a “last mile solution” (e.g., connection between a customer and a telephone company, cable company, and/or service provider) in remote regions (e.g., rural regions) for the delivery of video content, such as television (TV) content (e.g., TV shows, pay-per-view (PPV) content, video-on-demand (VOD) content, etc.).
Wireless service providers have no control over this off-network video content. For example, wireless service providers cannot provide quality of service (QoS) guarantees to such video content. QoS refers to resource reservation control mechanisms that provide different priorities to different applications, users, and/or traffic (e.g., video content), or guarantees a certain level of performance (e.g., a required bit rate, delay, jitter, packet dropping probability, and/or bit error rate (BER) may be guaranteed) to traffic. If content delivery is not optimized for wireless networks, video content may become a choking point for the wireless networks. This may result in poor user experiences and degraded services (e.g., provided by the wireless networks) for other applications like voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP).